Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment Day?

[Turd Ferguson]

In anticipation of Terminator: Genisys I've been rewatching the first four movies and stumbled upon something I never really paid any attention to. As we know, the T-850 and T-X both arrive either late the night before or in the wee hours of Judgment Day. The T-850 quickly locates John Connor and Kate Brewster and the T-X locates Connor's future TechCom lieutenants.

The problem is, we know that Jose Barrera was working and William and Elizabeth Anderson were at home when the T-X struck. If the T-X HADN'T struck, then were all these people supposed to go on vacation/holiday at the same time? Los Angeles took a direct hit from SkyNet, so if they were in the city they wouldn't have survived. Same with John Connor and Kate Brewster. If SkyNet hadn't sent the T-X, wouldn't John and Kate have been vaporized as well?

Seems like SkyNet could've saved themselves a whole lot of hassle by NOT sending the terminators back and letting the human resistance get destroyed in Judgment Day without the timeline tampering.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

People can survive a nuclear blast, even in the same city.

Also, the T-X was directly responsible along with Skynet for starting Judgement Day in her timeline, so she had to be present to cause it.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

I thought the virus caused by SkyNet was happening before the T-X even showed up. I was under the impression she just "helped" the T-1s take care of General Brewster and the CRS guys.

 

[Gaith]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

What's that? We all want to see my Terminator Time Chart again? Okay!

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I thought the virus caused by SkyNet was happening before the T-X even showed up.

Correct. A scripted, but not filmed, bit, had the lady the T-X took her red outfit from attempt and fail to make an ATM withdrawal due to the virus before she walks to her car. (Though a popular T3 fanedit called "The Coming Storm" does have the T-X upload the virus as she searches for her targets.)

People can survive a nuclear blast, even in the same city.

Also true. Maybe they were all in the subway? I'd imagine that'd be a fairly safe spot. Or maybe a movie theater out in the 'burbs? Not much glass in screening rooms to shatter and cut you up. There's even a documented case of a guy surviving both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks, and he lived to 2010.

Incidentally, TV Tropes has a pretty detailed description of what a nuclear blast hitting Disneyland might mean for the region, and those in it.

 

[Tosk]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

The problem is, we know that Jose Barrera was working and William and Elizabeth Anderson were at home when the T-X struck. If the T-X HADN'T struck, then were all these people supposed to go on vacation/holiday at the same time?

Sure, why not? Some went away for a few days, others survived in the city...I'm not sure I see the problem with a handful of people surviving. We also don't know how many of John's future people are already outside of L.A. at that point.

Also, the virus can't really be from the T-X because there is a news report on it very soon after she arrives. I can't see the late night news running big story on a computer virus only hours after it is released.

 

[Gaith]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

^ FWIW, the aforementioned fan edit addressed that by replacing the in-universe news report with a scene from Aliens.

 

[Taelon]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

Would you not have ignored the TV series if they'd had a 3rd season and wrapped up the cliffhanger?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

I thought the virus caused by SkyNet was happening before the T-X even showed up. I was under the impression she just "helped" the T-1s take care of General Brewster and the CRS guys.

It was, which is why I said Skynet caused it too.

"Also, the T-X was directly responsible along with Skynet for starting Judgement Day in her timeline, so she had to be present to cause it."

But the T-X insured Skynet's ability to launch the nukes by taking out General Brewster and the staff at CRS, who were the only ones who could possibly pose any risk to its ability to launch. Otherwise, why bother to attack the facility and put Brewster on the kill list? The facility would have been nuked/exposed to fallout in a couple hours anyway, so taking them out beforehand indicates that they were a continuing threat to Skynet's emergence to me. They were as fooled as everyone else about the nature of the virus at first, but if the T-X hadn't taken out the facility and Brewster they might have come up with a solution. At least, that's how I always interpreted it.

 

[Gaith]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

Would you not have ignored the TV series if they'd had a 3rd season and wrapped up the cliffhanger?

I'm not interested in a pre-JD series in which terminator attacks and other time-travel shenanigans are a weekly/each-episode occurrence, and since I'm a big T3 fan, my loyalties are to keeping that movie canonical anyway. So, no.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

But the T-X insured Skynet's ability to launch the nukes by taking out General Brewster and the staff at CRS, who were the only ones who could possibly pose any risk to its ability to launch. Otherwise, why bother to attack the facility and put Brewster on the kill list? The facility would have been nuked/exposed to fallout in a couple hours anyway, so taking them out beforehand indicates that they were a continuing threat to Skynet's emergence to me. They were as fooled as everyone else about the nature of the virus at first, but if the T-X hadn't taken out the facility and Brewster they might have come up with a solution. At least, that's how I always interpreted it.

I thought Brewster was targeted becuase he helped Conner link up with what was left of the US military after Judgment Day.

I also wonder if Skynet killing Brewster contributed to Conner being lower on the totem poll in Terminator Salvation.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

But the T-X insured Skynet's ability to launch the nukes by taking out General Brewster and the staff at CRS, who were the only ones who could possibly pose any risk to its ability to launch. Otherwise, why bother to attack the facility and put Brewster on the kill list? The facility would have been nuked/exposed to fallout in a couple hours anyway, so taking them out beforehand indicates that they were a continuing threat to Skynet's emergence to me. They were as fooled as everyone else about the nature of the virus at first, but if the T-X hadn't taken out the facility and Brewster they might have come up with a solution. At least, that's how I always interpreted it.

I thought Brewster was targeted becuase he helped Conner link up with what was left of the US military after Judgment Day.

I also wonder if Skynet killing Brewster contributed to Conner being lower on the totem poll in Terminator Salvation.

That's something else I've always wondered too. Sarah Connor was the only one (besides SkyNet) that believed John Connor to be the savior of the human race. In a post-Judgment Day world, with a still (at least partly) functional military, there's still a chain of command. Connor has no prior military experience besides the training given by Sarah, Enrique and the other crazy ex-Green Beret guys. How does Connor become the leader of the resistance?

Does he get on his CB and tell everybody listening that he's been trained since birth to be the savior of humanity? I imagine that there's still ambition in this world to rise through the ranks, especially if it means you could be known as the guy who saved humanity. Who steps aside to let a crazy guy who gets off yelling at his superiors on a CB about time travel and destiny to let this guy take command?

(I know Terminator Salvation would lead us to believe that all surviving military commanders are aboard a sub, but I refuse to believe the surviving military would be stupid enough to put all their eggs in one basket [nuclear sub ])

 

[Snaploud]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

Pre-Terminator 3, I always got the sense that John Connor waited many years before formally taking over the resistance (long after the organized military had been wiped out).

Sarah Connor: Did you see this war?

Kyle Reese: No. I grew up after. In the ruins... starving... hiding from H-K's.

Sarah Connor: H-K's?

Kyle Reese: Hunter-Killers. Patrol machines built in automated factories. Most of us were rounded up, put in camps for orderly disposal.

[Pulls up his right sleeve, exposing a mark]

Kyle Reese: This is burned in by laser scan. Some of us were kept alive... to work... loading bodies. The disposal units ran night and day. We were that close to going out forever. But there was one man who taught us to fight, to storm the wire of the camps, to smash those metal motherfuckers into junk. He turned it around. He brought us back from the brink. His name is Connor. John Connor. Your son, Sarah, your unborn son.

 

[Taelon]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

I like to think that in the original timeline, John Connor was one of the primary progammers of the Skynet system. Naturally he would be motivated to keep this a secret for fear or retribution but it would also put him in a unique position to lead the resistance as he knows thy enemy much better than anyone else.

 

[Tosk]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

I like to think that in the original timeline, John Connor was one of the primary progammers of the Skynet system.

When he was 12 years old?

 

[Taelon]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

Oh yeah... I forgot about the age thing. Maybe he was a genius computer hacker instead? Because "kids these days, amirite"?

 

[Tosk]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

Well, he was screwing the banks out of money at 10 with his little ATM hacker, but how does genius hacker equate to primary programmer of military software?

 

[Taelon]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

Yeah, I obviously didn't think it through. But I did just remember that film WarGames. Perhaps Skynet nuked Humanity because it kept losing to John Connor at tic-tac-toe.

 

[Tosk]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

If only Skynet had learned a lesson from Joshua, they could have avoided Judgment Day easy as pie.

"The only winning move is not to play."

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

(I know Terminator Salvation would lead us to believe that all surviving military commanders are aboard a sub, but I refuse to believe the surviving military would be stupid enough to put all their eggs in one basket [nuclear sub ])

Yeah but considering it looked like the rest of the resistance was already following his orders before the sub was taken out and doing so is why they didn't get killed as well. It looks like anyone left is deferring to Conner.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Re: Were all of John Connor's supposed to start vacation on Judgment D

Kids those days.